The trade and economy mega-thread (3 Viewers)

[superchuck500]

Is there a trade deal with China? Is it really a deal or just a pull-back to status quo ante? Is Trump advancing US interests in this well-executed trade battle plan or was this poorly conceived from the start . . . and harmful?

I think the jury's still out, but I haven't seen that the Chinese are offering much in compromise - and it's not even clear if there's going to be an agreement. But it's clear they are working on something and I'm sure Trump will sell it as the greatest trade deal ever. The proof will be in the details.

 

[Booker]

My oldest got into Colorado School of Mines, and really liked it... but as an out of state student, it was hard to justify over Virginia Tech (in-state). Great school though.

Did your oldest graduate from Mines?

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Did your oldest graduate from Mines?

No, he's at Virginia Tech right now...but he got accepted there, and really liked it. It was about $15k per year more than Tech though, so stuck to in-state.
One of my customers is a Chemical Engineering graduate from Mines, and has nothing but good things to say about it.

 

[Booker]

No, he's at Virginia Tech right now...but he got accepted there, and really liked it. It was about $15k per year more than Tech though, so stuck to in-state.
One of my customers is a Chemical Engineering graduate from Mines, and has nothing but good things to say about it.

Okay, got it, that’s the one in aerospace.

Yeah, our oldest applied to some out of state schools, and we told him at the time that if he really wanted to go to one of those schools we would be supportive, but he’d have to take out student loans. We were really happy when he settled on CU.

We didn’t even consider out of state for the younger one. I think he’ll do better staying closer to home, and Mines is literally 30 minutes door to door from where we live, and 20 minutes of that is just getting from our house out of the foothills.

 

[LA 2 L.A.]

Local Reddit threads from people who are graduating this May and are looking for work, even in STEM fields are heartbreaking. These kids are losing hope. They say they have sent out over a hundred resumes and cannot even get a call back.

It's not a good time to be young and just starting or older and "too experienced." Over the past 3 years I've applied for over a hundred jobs online that I am 100% qualified for and experienced at. The only responses I got were 3 or 4 "thank you for submitting, but..." emails. Crickets from the rest. It's the first time in my life that I haven't get an interview for every position I applied for. I went from 100% to 0%.

It is heartbreaking and hope stifling, but it's also infuriating as hell. The only thing that's changed about me is my age. Just saying.

 

[LA 2 L.A.]

Yep, share in everyone's concerns... I have 2 in college and one a Jr in high school. Oldest is an aerospace engineer, and the AI curve for that is a bit behind, so hopefully he'll be ok for a bit. Middle kid is a film student... and that was always a crap shoot.

If your child in film school is focused on building a career, then they should try to make social media connections with film and television students in the Ivy league schools. They dominate the television world, engage in a high level of cronyism, and that's were almost all the steady work is.

If they want to break into the film side, they need to focus on creating their own low budget content and building an online audience for it. They should create content based on public domain things that have a high public "pre-awareness." The film industry wants content based on things everyone knows about, but nobody owns as intellectual property. They love that stuff more than IP. They can search online to find out what literature, movies, plays, cartoons and what not are in public doman. Or just taking something that everyone is familiar with and building a series or film around it. Things like the lottery, fantatsy football, online gaming, or anything that's really popular with larges groups of people.

The most important advice I have for them is to start now and come out of the gates like a quarter horse. If they don't establish themselved by the age of 40, then it will be nearly impossible for them to have a steady career. Don't start at the age of 30 with no connection to anyone like I did.

If your child is focused on creating art through story telling, then nothing but respect for them and more power to them. They just need to develop a sustainable day job that accommodates their film making. They'll probably more easily find satisfaction and joy going that route.